To: Jeff Jonas <jeffj@panix.com>Sent: Sunday, April 23, 2023 at 12:51:17 AM EDTSubject: Re: re-animating IBM front panels Thank You Jeff, Sorry I missed the VCF East 2023 event. I have transportation issues, and a bad back. I am currently using, for each front panel, an esp8266 driving individual ws2811 LEDs, NOT the light strings; with a refresh rate of over 100 cycles per second. The plan is to drive the IBM 370 / 145 front panel using a Raspberry with Hercules VM/370 emulation. I also have a 3270 display console, that is internally trash, looking to replace the guts with an old VGA monitor connected to another Raspberry PI running 3270 emulation. These front panels weigh a ton, and are made of big IBM iron. I will have a difficult time hauling them to the New Jersey shore from Northern Virginia. Thanks David duBose On Saturday, April 22, 2023 at 11:48:39 PM EDT, Jeff Jonas <jeffj@panix.com> wrote:
I am in the process of reanimating my IBM front panel collection.
I wish I could have a hand in the process but my project backlog is too much :-( 1) I heard that the "Living Computer Museum" was mostly modern controllers (Raspberry Pi, etc) emulating the real systems. If they ran the real incandescent lamps, find out how! 2) Carl Claunch has a FPGA clone of the IBM 1130, complete with LED retrofit for the front panel. I believe he even has firmware for the LEDs to faithfully emulate incandescent lamps/bulbs. I'm of the opinion that using the proper color LEDs is cheaper and probably faster / more responsive than retrofitting with "Neopixel" controller-color-LEDs. Please keep everyone "in the loop". forever watching das blinkenlights, Jeff Jonas ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- On Wednesday, April 12, 2023 at 07:07:04 PM EDT, David Keith <beloved_wind@yahoo.com> wrote: Since I have now retired, I am in the process of reanimating my IBM front panel collection. With this challenge, you may have given me a deadline to get them completely animated again. I have the following in my collection: IBM System 370 Model 145 Mainframe CPU Operators Console Panel w/ header IBM 3705 Communications Controller front panel IBM 3803 Tape Control Unit Control panel Let me know, if there is any interest, transportation will be a issue, these items are made of big iron. Thanks David duBose